I think the figure under the shroud probably
is a disembodied spirit. I don't think this because I want it to be but for several good reasons. First, there's Waite's belief that necromancy, or calling up departed spirits, was possible. In his 1891 book,
The Occult Sciences, p. 74, he says:
"As a fact, the evocation of the souls of the departed is one of the most important branches of practical mysticism; it is one of the test experiments by which the mystic gospel may be said to stand or fall. If it be possible, after following for a certain prescribed period a certain method of life, calculated to exalt the intellectual faculties, to quicken spiritual perceptions, and to germinate what may be called a new sense in man; if it be possible to enter into actual and undeceived communication with beings who have departed from this our plane of subsistence; if we can see them as they were; if we can, to some extent, know them as they are; and if, at the time, we are in conscious possession of our common senses, then the mystic gospel must be the truth itself."
In other words Spiritualism and necromancy prove the existence of a reality beyond the material, which is important if mysticism is to be believed. He goes on to quote Paul Christian who says a person might be "Prompted by a sentiment of profound tenderness," to call up a departed loved one. This is of interest because Waite lists "sentiment" as one of the divinatory meanings for the 7 of Cups.
In 1891, Waite speaks quite favorably of "lawful" necromancy:
"It must be clear from the above ceremonial that there is nothing repellent to the most cultivated spiritual sense in the rites of lawful necromancy. It is otherwise, however, with the evocations of the infernal art, with the unhallowed necromantic practices of Black Magic, which violate the sanctity of the sepulchre, and endeavour to establish a vicious communion with the souls of evil men." p. 81.
But by 1893, in
Azoth, or, The Star in the East, his opinion is beginning to shift. In Appendix 5 he says:
"It is a criticism which may seem to be severe, and we wish that we could regard it as unjust, but there can be little doubt, from our own philosophical standpoint, that a large portion of the active spiritual movement, and a still larger portion of its literature, are only a sublimed materialism. We do not here speak of what is admittedly coarse and crass in its constituent elements; we regard it even in its refined presentation as at heart material, and in nothing so much as in its demonstration of the after-life. Its furthest vistas do not bring us appreciably nearer to that which the Mystics understand by the inner life."
He still sees it as a demonstration of the after-life, but of not much use beyond that. He mentions the "active spiritual movement" but his criticism seems to go to the very heart of spiritualism.
Levi's account of necromancy in
Transcendental Magic is also of interest. Waite was aware of it and comments on it in
The Occult Sciences, p. 74. Levi's views are interesting on several fronts. One is the Astral Light which is seen in the 7 of Cups:
"We have said that the images of persons and things are preserved in the Astral Light. Therein also can be evoked the forms of those who are in our world no longer, and by this means are accomplished those mysteries of Necromancy which are so contested and at the same time so real."—Levi
Another is Levi's description of his evocation of Apollonius:
"Three times, and with closed eyes, I invoked Apollonius. When I again looked forth there was a man in front of me, wrapped from head to foot in a species of shroud, which seemed more grey than white."
Notice the shroud in the 7 of Cups is also more grey than white.
And finally is Levi's description of the apparition as shrouded. I believe the figure in the 7 of Cups is also shrouded. I can't think of any other good explanation for what else it could be, especially with the profusion of astral light coming from beneath it. The first thing a person usually thinks of when they think of a ghost is a sheet or burial shroud.
In summary, it represents sentimentalism taken to the extreme, or a preoccupation with occult phenomena to the neglect of the inner life.